1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a flattened carboard box supplying apparatus, and more particularly to such apparatus which is used to automatically supply flattened cardboard boxes to an automatic film-packing machine or the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In film-packing operations, flattened cardboard boxes (which are hereinafter referred to as work units) are supplied to the automatic film-packing machine in which each work unit is expanded for receiving a plastic case containing a cartridge including a roll of film therein. Specifically, the work unit supplied to the automatic film-packing machine is at first expanded to be in the form of a square tube and then the flaps of the work unit at the bottom side are fastened to each other with paste so as to form an open-topped square box into which the plastic case generally having a cylindrical configuration is inserted. After the insertion of the plastic case thereinto, the flaps of the box at the top side are also fastened to each other with paste for completely packing the plastic case.
For supplying the work units to the automatic film-packing machine, it is usual to use belt conveyors on which the work units are placed upright and closely in contact. Heretofore, operators have handled manually a number of work units at a time for placing the work units on the belt conveyor. Because of the handling capacity of the automatic film-packing machine, which is generally 500 to 1,000 pieces per minute, for example, frequent work supplying operations have been required.
For solving this problem, there has been proposed a conveyor apparatus of the type having inclined, curved conveyor belts, as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Appln. No. 58-29364. That apparatus, which is adapted to provide a long interval of time for supplying the work, has however left a serious problem unsolved. The problems, which is in the automatic work supply, seems to be solvable by using a robot hand well known per se. However, when using a robot hand, there arises the problem that the work units often fall like dominoes after being placed on the conveyor belt by the robot hand. This makes it impossible to continuously supply the work units to the automatic film-packing machine.